Tag Archives: astro2110

Culmination of ASTR-2110 Blog Post

a. I was most surprised by how much we can discover about celestial bodies from our long distances. In the cases of other stellar systems, we may not know so much, but within our own, we’re able to study other bodies and make deductions about their properties to such a granular level– and this was […] Continue reading

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The Fermi Paradox Explained

Source The Fermi Paradox describes the contradiction between high and low probability of extraterrestrial civilizations that exist in the universe and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations. The term is named after the physicist Enrico Fermi who asked “Where is everybody?” during a conversation about the likelihood of alien life in […] Continue reading

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What are the Odds?

The Drake Equation is a formula proposed to estimate the number of technologically advanced civilizations within a given galaxy that may be capable of communicating with us. It doesn’t calculate anything with certainty but, instead, aims to stipulate that if we give X, Y, Z, criteria, what would we expect to see? How many civilizations […] Continue reading

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Extremophiles

Image from Cosmos Magazine Extremophiles are organisms capable of living under extreme conditions. This includes but is not limited to extreme temperature, radiation, pressure, and pH level. Given the extremely resilient nature of these organisms, they are some of the most abundant life forms. These creatures are fascinating as they have helped to stretch our […] Continue reading

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Final Blog

Picture credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine I was very surprised that there are so many bodies in our own solar system that have a real chance of having some sort of microbial life. I always thought the other planets and moons in the solar system were much too far away from the sun or […] Continue reading

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Life Elsewhere in the Universe?

Picture Credit: Columbia University As generations of humans have looked out on the stars, a never ending barrage of questions has ensued. As we learned that these celestial bodies were stars and planets similar to our own, the natural next question was is there anybody else like us out there? The bad answer is no. […] Continue reading

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So Where Is Everybody?

As one may have gathered from reading the many, many pages of “The Cosmic Perspective,” the human race has learned a lot about the universe. We can determine the masses, chemical compositions, and orbital paths of celestial bodies. We’ve identified thousands of planetary systems in outside our own. We know how stars are born and […] Continue reading

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Blog 08 – My Farewell

Thank you all for reading my blog posts. Please enjoy my final farewell and concluding thoughts on the course with information from the Pearson Textbook. Enjoy this Milky Way photo from the Farmer’s Almanac. During the time throughout this course, the fact that surprised me the most was the geological activity of other planets and […] Continue reading

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Blog 07 – Methanogens

Methanogens are a type of extremophile. While browsing information on extremophiles, these caught my attention because they “ convert inorganic organic compounds into methane and carbon dioxide” (ScienceDirect). These microorganisms prove to be responsible for human flatulence. In addition to their unique productions, Methanogens can be found in the guts of animals, deep marine sediment, […] Continue reading

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Reflection on Astro 2110

The most surprising thing I learned in this course is the sheer vastness of space, to the point where there is still a lot about our own solar system that we don’t know. I did know prior that the Universe is infinite, because it is ever expanding, but it’s a lot different to think that […] Continue reading

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